Mark Prendergast told David Hennessy about his new EP with solo project Man Alive, getting back at it with Kodaline and collaborating with Aisling Bea on his new video.
Mark Prendergast is well known for playing guitar with Kodaline but is now also doing his own thing with the solo project entitled Man Alive.
With over a billion streams, three #1 albums in Ireland, two Top 5 records in the UK and playing shows all over the world, Kodaline have conquered the world since they burst onto the scene back in 2012.
Mark emerged last year as a new act with Be Someone, his debut solo track.
It earned him attention from the likes of NME, Clash and Hot Press as well as radio airplay.
The debut EP Colours followed.
Now he is releasing the follow up EP entitled Hiding and it is preceded by the song Miles Away, a song about isolation.
The song is accompanied by a video written and directed by Aisling Bea who is well known from This Way Up and Home Alone.
It was actually Aisling Bea who was a pivotal influence for Mark to bring Man Alive to the wider world. He played the comedian and actress an early version of Be Someone when they were in Los Angeles in 2021, and her belief in the project really pushed him to make it happen.
She also convinced Prendergast to change the first provisional name he had for his solo project, Blood Type, telling him it was “sh*t and doesn’t match your music.” Eventually, he went with Man Alive.
The singer- songwriter has also moved to London first to ‘County Clapham’ although he is East now.
You said it felt strange going out on your own for the first EP but is it less so this time around for it being the second one?
“Yeah, definitely. It’s definitely more comfortable. I think the first EP was like unchartered territory and I was so nervous.
“I think I put way too much weight and expectation into the whole thing. I really enjoyed it but it was kind of strange to go out by myself and do interviews and do photo shoots and all that kind of weird stuff alone.
“But now, on the second EP, it’s so much easier. I’m kind of looking at it differently.
“I’m just enjoying the music a bit more this time and taking it in a bit more, because before I was watching Instagram and I was getting so involved in all that stuff and it’s not really healthy to kind of keep your eyes on that stuff.
“I’m really excited about this next EP, very excited to get it out.”
The single is Miles Away with its themes of solitude and then the EP is called Hiding. Can I take it that isolation is a theme of the EP?
“It’s funny because the song Miles Away is 100% about isolation but it’s more of a romantic and kind of funny way of looking at it than it is a gloomy way.
“It’s kind of more just very now and then you just need your own company and nobody else for a couple of days and Miles Away was about sinking into that feeling of, ‘I don’t want to see anybody, I don’t want to do anything’ and just kind of celebrating that instead of kind of moaning about it, I suppose.
“But the thing about the song Hiding is it’s more so about finding someone and the question is like, ‘Where have you been hiding this whole time?’
“So they are about different things but the word hiding shows up in a few songs.”
Was Miles Away written in lockdown by any chance?
“Do you know what it was? I was on a month long tour of Asia with Kodaline: Brilliant, amazing tour.
“And then I got into a really, really busy period and I just had a lot of stuff on and I just gave myself three days off.
“Was like, ‘Right, there’s three days, you’re gonna sit on the couch, you’re gonna catch up on whatever TV show you’re watching’.
“And then in those three days off, the song kind of happened.
“So ironically I was actually really, really busy on my time off because I was writing a song.
“It definitely came much later than lockdown, it’s just about enjoying my own company but maybe the feeling of enjoying my own company came from lockdown maybe.
“That’s very, very possible.”
The song is written with Gavin James and he’s someone who’s been very supportive of the Man Alive project, isn’t he?
“Oh, he’s been very supportive.
“Me and Gav are friends.
“He toured with Kodaline ten years ago so we’ve been really good friends and we just kind of realised that we had been really good friends hanging out loads but we never actually wrote songs together, so we kind of started doing it a couple of years ago and we’ve done loads.
“We really, really enjoy each other’s company because there’s no pressure.
“A lot of times we’ll make music as a result of hanging out and the song will just happen very organically which for me is the most exciting way for a song to come about.
“We went on holidays.
“We went to America for two weeks and we just kind of wrote songs in between.
“He’s a really good friend and he’s an exceptional song writer.
“I leaned on him quite a bit.”
Someone else who has been a supporter from day one and is involved in the video is Aisling Bea….
“Yeah, I’ve never collaborated so closely with a director and a writer and a comedian.
“Me and my friend, Tomas Daly, we just had this very simple idea for the music video of like, ‘Oh, imagine there was like a doll and the doll is basically me and it’s going through all the motions’, basically so I don’t have to be in the video because I’m not a huge fan of that stuff.
“So it was a very lazy way of not having to pay for an actor, we just bought a doll and were like, ‘he’ll do’.
“But then I met Aisling for lunch and I told her about the idea.
“She went away and she wrote it basically.
“She created the whole shot list and she mapped the whole thing out, start to finish.
“It was amazing to work with someone like that because she’s obviously a completely different type of storyteller.
“It was amazing to kind of see it and be so hands on with it because with Kodaline videos, I wouldn’t have a huge involvement at all, we just get sent a finished things so it was nice to actually step into that world for a little bit and just see what it’s like.
“It’s cool. I love it.”
It reminded me of the early Kodaline video All I Want in that it had its central Beauty and the Beast story and the band are very much in the background. You as a band have never minded being background players to the story, in fact you much prefer not having to pose in the videos if it suits the thing better..
“Exactly, I think you just nailed it there.
“I was actually going to reference Kodaline because at the start of our career, we released an EP and we made a video for each song and we were like, ‘Let’s not be in the videos’.
“So we weren’t in music videos for years and we kind of got known for having these videos that were stories that went with the song and it would give our song completely new life.
“It gave us like a different angle of what someone else got from the song.
“Then after a few years our record company were like, ‘Right, you need to be in your videos’.
“So we started doing those videos where we’re playing along to the track, and they just didn’t work.
“It must be us.
“We saw music videos as being like a second chance to promote your song so same thing applies to this.”
And Aisling was clearly on the same page. It would have been easy to shoehorn her recognisable face into a shot but she stays behind the camera..
“I never even thought of that because obviously she’s a famous actor so if you put a famous person in your video, it’s going to help the video.
“But it never even crossed my mind.
“I think if we had tried to put it in the video, it would have taken away from the story, or maybe not, maybe it would have been amazing.
“But I just didn’t want to ask her because she was kind enough to direct it and I think she’s an amazing director and working with her and seeing her process was eye opening.
“She’s a friend so it was amazing to see her switch into professional mode.
“It was like, ‘Oh, wow’. It was quite exciting.”
Another man who has given you his backing and you’ve been doing things with recently is James Vincent McMorrow..
“Yeah, me and James kind of connected during lockdown.
“We just ended up spending months in his studio and just jamming with guitars, not necessarily songwriting. Just playing music for weeks and months on end.
“We just became really good friends.
“I only saw him last week actually, he played a show in London.
“The thing that’s in common with all these people who are ‘industry people’ is that I’m really good friends with them all.
“If I was to reach out to someone and ask them to do this stuff, and I didn’t know them, I don’t know if it would work.
“Well, it might. You never know but I’m just so comfortable around these people. They’re just good friends.”
Is it fair to say that this second EP and Man Alive wouldn’t have happened without their encouragement?
“Definitely, because I’d had songs for years but I never had the urge to release them. I never wanted to do this.
“I never thought about it but sometimes you just need a kick up the a**e by someone close to you to kind of be like, ‘Come on, you have to do it, get sh*t together. You have written the songs, they’re just living in your email in a folder. No one’s gonna hear them, put them out there’.
“It was amazing because it was a brand new thing to do for a whole year.
“I was going to the studio by myself, doing this kind of stuff by myself.
“It’s just been a nice break from being in a band. But when this EP comes out, then it’s back into Kodaline world.
“So being able to do Man Alive in the meantime has given me this enormous hunger to go back and do Kodaline and start that journey again.
“It was really beneficial in that way.”
What a shame it would have been if you didn’t release the music and the songs just stayed in a folder in your email..
“There’s probably so many people that have songs sitting there and they’re afraid to release them because they don’t know where to go or how to start.
“I think I was just in a very privileged lucky position that I had people in the industry who kind of took the pressure off.
“They were like, ‘At the end of the day, you’re just putting songs on Spotify. That’s all it’s happening. No one can hurt you’.
“Putting music out by myself is a much more vulnerable process than putting it out in a band.
“Being in the band is such a safe space.
“We’ve got four people to carry the load.
“If something goes wrong or right, you’re all in it together.
“By yourself, it’s just different.
“It’s not worse or better, it’s just different.”
Was there a sense of validation with releasing your first EP last year in that sense?
“I think all you want to do as a musician is just make music that your friends like, so I had a party in my house and I was like, ‘Oh guys, I’m doing this solo thing. Can I play you some music?’
“And I played to like ten of my friends which was terrifying.
“A lot of them had never heard me sing before and I played them four or five songs.
“I think your friends are gonna tell you you’re good anyway but their reaction was genuine and they gave me more support.
“I kind of felt like because I’d told those people I’m gonna do this, there was a little support system behind me.”
You’re about to play Electric Picnic with Kodaline later this year, do you look forward to playing something on that scale on your own?
“Do you know what? I don’t really think like that because I don’t want to put too much expectation on it.
“Because I think that’s what I did a year ago, before I was releasing it.
“But I can’t wait for Electric Picnic with Kodaline because I haven’t played a show that size in about a year, so it’s gonna be amazing.”
What’s the situation with the band? Is there a new album on the horizon because you haven’t a studio record since 2020’s One Day at a Time. Has it been something of a hiatus?
“We definitely didn’t call it a hiatus.
“We just went kind of crazy busy from 2010 up until 2020.
“We were gone sometimes 10 months a year: aving the time of our life, having a great time.
“But then when it all slowed down, and kind of the lads had kids, it was just like, ‘We don’t actually have to put out music now. We may think that you have to do an album every two years or you’ll disappear, all this kind of shit’.
“We were like, ‘We’ve done four albums in eight years’.
“So I think we just needed a break but we’re all getting very, very, very itchy feet and I think Electric Picnic is going to be amazing.”
It isn’t surprising that you needed a break. I was trying to work out how long you guys have been playing together. You were on You’re A Star back in 2006 and were clearly playing before that so are you playing 20 years or around that?
“It’s probably 20 years this year.”
The band absolutely exploded back in 2012 before their debut album In A Perfect World arrived in 2013.
“Yeah, it was a crazy, crazy human experience.
“At the time, it just kind of happens.
“It just kind of happens and you’re in the middle of it.
“Things that are obscene and crazy just kind of seem normal because there’s so much going on.
“It’s not until years later when you kind of take a break and you’re like, ‘Jesus, we did that, that and that’.
“We were totally blessed to have such a lovely career and get to go around the world playing songs.
“I know it’s a cliche but you have to be forever grateful for that or else there’s something wrong with you.”
What has been the biggest pinch me moment that your 15 year old self starting to play in a band wouldn’t have believed?
“The one that leaps out the most- This is directly affecting my 15 year old self because that was the time I started getting into Led Zeppelin and The White Stripes and I started properly playing electric guitar. I bought a guitar amplifier and turned it up really loud.
“We had just played one of our biggest shows ever. It was at Glastonbury and it was just people as far as you can see.
“Then afterwards, Jack White was playing on the Pyramid Stage so I went to watch him from the side of the stage.
“I watched Jack White who was my guitar Hero and Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin was standing beside me.
“I was just like, ‘F**k me. This is it. This is what 15 year old Mark wouldn’t believe.
“That’s one of the best moments for 15 year old guitar playing, spotty, long haired Mark in his living room.”
Mark is now semi- based in London.
“I love London. I still go home once a month for about a week to see family and friends and have Guinness but I like London.
“It’s just a good place to kind of write music so it’s kind of home for now.”
The single Miles Away is out now.
The EP Hiding is out now.
For more information, click here.
